RELX Group to Acquire Fraud Fighting Firm ThreatMetrix for $815 Million

RELX Group, a provider of b2b Information and analytics services, announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire fraud detection firm ThreatMetrix for £580 million (approximately $815 million) in cash.

Founded in 2005, San Jose, Calif.-based ThreatMetrix’s technology analyzes connections among devices, locations, identity information and threat intelligence, and combines the data with behavioral analytics to identify high-risk transactions in real time.

“ThreatMetrix has built the largest digital identity network that can determine when an individual’s credentials are being used by cybercriminals in real time, which enables businesses to better understand the global footprint of stolen identities,” Alisdair Faulkner, chief products officer at ThreatMetrix, said in 2015 when the company launched its ThreatMetrix Digital Identity Network.

The company says the network currently analyzes more than 100 million transactions per day across 35,000 websites from 5,000 customers.

According to a report published by ThreatMetrix in mid-2017, the United States was the world's primary target for cyber fraud attacks, and Europe has emerged as the major source of attacks, now accounting for 50% more attacks than the US. The report also found that growth in attacks was outpacing the growth of transactions; and that in a 90-day period, 130 million fraud attacks were detected.

Accoding to the company, ThreatMetrix will become part of Risk & Business Analytics, which under the LexisNexis Risk Solutions brand addresses fraud and authentication challenges by "applying advanced analytics to physical identity attributes, including identity credentials, addresses and asset ownership."

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has an existing partnership with ThreatMetrix, as ThreatMetrix’s device intelligence solutions are already integrated into its Risk Defense Platform.

“Further integration of ThreatMetrix’s capabilities in device, email and social intelligence will build a more complete picture of risk in today’s global, mobile digital economy, providing both physical and digital identity solutions,” the company said.

ThreatMetrix has raised more than $90 million in funding, including $20 million in Series E funding in March 2014, $30 million in growth funding from Silicon Valley Bank in October 2016, and $12.1 million in 2010.

For more than 10 years, Mike Lennon has been closely monitoring the threat landscape and analyzing trends in the National Security and enterprise cybersecurity space. In his role at SecurityWeek, he oversees the editorial direction of the publication and is the Director of several leading security industry conferences around the world.